Honey Oat Challah – A Gluten Free Story

Once upon a time there was a Chicago Girl who had a LOT of friends who were gluten intolerant. She really liked having them over for Shabbat meals, so she developed a recipe for Gluten Free Oat Challah. Everyone LOVED the challah, in fact it was SO popular that it was even published in Mishpacha Magazine, and then in the Kosher Scoop cookbook!! Cool right?

Then, the unthinkable happened. The Chicago Girl became gluten intolerant herself!!! Gasp! She ended up spending a lot of time making gluten free oat challah for herself, her family, and her gluten intolerant friends.

One day, the Chicago Girl thought “I bet there is a way to make this most excellent gluten free challah even better! So she thought, and she thought, and she tried different recipe changes and finally came up with a super moist, super delicious gluten free oat challah upgrade: The Gluten Free Honey Oat Challah. By substituting about half of the processed sugar (Oh no! Not processed sugar!) with some all natural honey (oh yes!) the challah was moister, with a natural sweetness that was extremely tasty!

All of the Chicago Girl’s friends and family were extremely excited about the new and improved challah! In fact, the Chicago Girl made a super large Gluten Free Honey Oat Challah for sheva brachot for a GFE (Gluten Free Eater) kallah (bride). As it turns out, the guests all ate the gluten free challah instead of the glutenous one – and they didn’t even realize it was gluten free!!!!! Hooray!

And so this story has a happy ending after all. The End.

(Videos to follow…)

And now for the rest of the story:

So…if you haven’t figured it out already…I’m the Chicago girl! I know you are all shocked by that revelation!

Here is a really important GFE challah making tip that I discovered the hard way. Accurately measure all the ingredients. One erev Shabbat I didn’t…adding way too much of the dry ingredients. The challah literally sucked every ounce of moisture from our bodies leaving us dry, skin covered skeletons, without a drop of liquid in our dehydrated bodies. Ok, so it wasn’t quite that bad…but trust me…ACCURATELY measure the ingredients! Also, it really pays to use a brand new bottle or can of carbonated seltzer water with all of it’s fizz intact. I once had only raspberry seltzer in the house and the challah came out surprisingly delicious.

Final challah point – if you double this recipe you will be making more than 5 pounds of challah dough and you can actually take challah with a bracha! Bonus!

Ok – one more thing…really! The amazing Gluten Free Expo is coming to the Chicago area this weekend!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! I’m going with my handy dandy media pass and will be doing all the fabulous social media stuff to keep you posted about the exciting new and improved GFE Kosher Products…so stay tuned throughout the day on Sunday, April 23rd!!!

Honey Oat Challah - Gluten Free

2017-04-21 19:25:36

Serves 8

An updated version of my famous Gluten Free Oat Challah

Print

Prep Time

20 min

Cook Time

30 min

Prep Time

20 min

Cook Time

30 min

Ingredients

4 tablespoons yeast

2 tablespoon sugar

1 cup warm water

9 cups certified gluten free oat flour (whisk to remove lumps)

1 1/3 cup tapioca flour (starch)

2 2/3 cup potato starch

2 tablespoon xanthan gum

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup honey

2 teaspsoons salt

8 large eggs

1 cup canola oil

2 cups seltzer

2 large egg

2 tablespoons warm water

sesame seeds, poppy seeds, dried onion (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350° F.

In a small bowl combine the yeast, tablespoons of sugar, and warm water. Allow the yeast to proof for 5 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl whisk together 9 cups oat flour, tapioca flour, potato starch, xanthan gum, sugar and salt. Make a small well in the center of the dry ingredients. Add the eggs, honey, canola oil, seltzer and proofed yeast into the well in the dry ingredients. Mix until the ingredients are just smooth and combined. Allow the dough to rest for 2-5 minutes. If the dough is particularly sticky or loose add an additional ½ cup of oat flour and mix until the dough is smooth. Spoon into braided loaf pan, or form small dough balls and place into standard loaf pan to form braids. Cover the loaves or rolls and let rise for one hour. If baking in a standard loaf or muffin pans, combine the large egg and warm water and brush over the risen loaf. Top with sesame or poppy seeds if desired. Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown.

Notes

Make sure the water is "baby bottle warm" not hot when you proof the yeast.

You can roll small pieces of dough into challah knots to be baked in muffin tins. Sprinkle your rolling surface with a little oat flour first.

Reader Interactions

Comments

I use the bulk active dry yeast you get at Costco or Sam’s club. You can use any yeast just make sure it’s not old and that the water you proof it in is warm, not hot or you will kill the yeast. Please let me know how yours turns out!

That is an EXCELLENT idea! I’ll try to do that in the future. I actually have a measuring bowl that is a dual measuring bowl/scale. I think if I use that it should make the task super easy. Please keep sending me your excellent ideas – that’s a really good one!

I haven’t tried it – I would wonder if it would make the dough more dense. I also tend not to use almond flour in challah so that if someone has a gluten and nut intolerance they can still eat the challah. Try it and please let me know how it turns out! Thanks!

If you would like to make large challahs then you would need at least 2 of the larger sized ones. There is a metal pan that I like to use for large Challot. Here is a link to it: http://amzn.to/2qYV03U on amazon. The challahs come out easily and look beautiful. As for silicone: I’ve used the smaller, large roll version which makes 4 larger challah rolls at a time. I would probably get at least 4 of those. This new version of the dough does a decent job of actually braiding. The key is to use vinyl gloves, so the dough doesn’t stick to your hands, and to hand the dough gently. I have made challah knots which I place either on a baking tray independently or in a large muffin tin. That would remove the need to buy additional pans. Finally Wilton makes a Twisted Long John pan which makes really beautiful long small challot. Here is a link on amazon: http://amzn.to/2rjLwkM and on wilton.com:http://www.wilton.com/6-cavity-donut-twist-pan/2105-0627.html . Hope this helps. When I made this recipe I got a few “larger” braided challot (I actually braided them rather than using the moulded pan), a pan or long twisted ones, muffin sized challah knots, and one “small” silicone mould challah pan with 4 challahs. It’s nice to make some smaller ones that you can just pull out and reheat and eat. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any further questions. Sharon

I don’t know about the arrowroot – I can check, but you often can use flax eggs instead of regular eggs. You would have to try it to find out I think. Good luck and please let me know how it turns out!

OMG! I can’t get over this challah! This is by far the best gluten-free challah I’ve ever made!! Thank you! I also wanted to let you know that I used regular water instead of seltzer and it worked well.

How well does this freeze? I’d like to make enough to take challah with a bracha, but I also don’t want to eat stale bread for the few weeks after, like I’ve had to with other GF bread recipes I’ve made.

I always freeze this challah! I’ve found you can freeze it for 4-6 weeks after you make it, and it’s best to warm it before serving. After that amount of time the challah tends to dry out a little, but warming it helps a lot. I also couldn’t make a challah recipe that I couldn’t freeze because I usually make challah rolls or mini challahs and I couldn’t possibly eat them all at once!!! Please let me know how yours turns out!

On the “Kosher Me & Gluten Free” Facebook page, Shayna just recommended that you might consider substituting Stevia (1 1/2 cups stevia for 1 cup sugar, and let the challahs rise a little longer once shaped). I also think you might be able to substitute brown sugar, or possibly maple syrup – but I’d be concerned that the dough would be a little too dense with the syrup given that there is already honey in the recipe. I hope this helps..please let me know how yours turns out. All the best, Sharon

These recipes are for sole, personal use of visitors to Sharon Matten -Edible Experience Kosher Everyday. Kosher Everyday recipes are for your enjoyment but are not to be posted or reprinted without express permission from Sharon Matten. Thank you!!

Primary Sidebar

Meet Sharon Matten

Sharon Matten lives in the awesome city of Chicago with her family, their guinea pig Puffball, and several glow in the dark fish. For more information about Sharon click here →